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Bauplan/bodyplan. Technical term?


val horn

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I've been seeing the word bauplan a lot in literature,  and I can’t find a definition that has a different meaning than bodyplan.  

Is there a difference?  Or is this just technical jargon?

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  • Fossildude19 changed the title to Bauplan bodyplan. Technical term?

Technical jargon.  Science by nature uses technical language, and while it can be difficult for us to understand at times, it is universal to use the jargon. 

It is meant to be understood by scientists, but there is no barrier (in this internet age, anyway)  to layman learning this technical language.  ;) 

From Wikipedia:

 

Bauplan.JPG

    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

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  • Fossildude19 changed the title to Bauplan/bodyplan. Technical term?

Agreed. It can get annoying sometimes as different fields use different terms for the same thing. For instance, language has changed as has taxonomy- older paleontology papers tend to use a lot of German terms and Linnaean organization as they predate English being considered the “standard” language of science. Up until a decade ago, botanists still used Latin, etc. etc. etc.

 

it gets confusing for pros too! Thankfully google makes it easier.

 

paleontology terms in particular get difficult at times.

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Bauplan does directly translate to "body plan" but in biological usage the term contains additional connotation about developmental constraint especially in "stereotypical" stages of development. The term bauplan carries that meaning in ways that "body plan" does not and therefore is an efficient and precise way of communicating that to a reader who is already familiar with the jargon. Most paleontologists are aiming at that level of efficiency and precision of language, not at creating a barrier to comprehension by non-professionals.

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This is interesting. To be truthful, as a biologist, I had come across the term in various papers, but it was not part of my education. This topic triggered a very interesting discussion with my coworkers about how to teach this issue more clearly to our students.

 

Thanks all!

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Our offline discussion traveled into “How many body plans are there?” ( a lot!) and topics like do organisms that are arguably alive fall under the same standards as extant and extinct specimens.

How do we teach the nuance between “bauplan” and “body plan” to kids that for some reason never google stuff? 

 

Then we discovered that in this particular instance, google is annoyingingly ambiguous.

 

Much coffee was consumed and very little actual work was done trying to crack this nut

 

we have struggled for years trying to discuss with our students both in lectures (and in my case lab) that terminology and jargon is a real issue at times.

 

A paleontology slant on the topic has me thinking I need to add this to my future classes and labs.

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I do not remember hearing the term blauplan in the past. However, I do use the concept when trying to ID an unknown fossil and put it into a taxonomic group.
 

Here is a definition of blauplan from University of Texas, El Paso:

 

http://museum2.utep.edu/archive/biology/DDbauplan.htm

 

Here is probably a good reference behind a paywall:

 

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-015-7926-1_5

 

 

Edited by DPS Ammonite

My goal is to leave no stone or fossil unturned.   

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15 minutes ago, LabRatKing said:

This is interesting. To be truthful, as a biologist, I had come across the term in various papers, but it was not part of my education. This topic triggered a very interesting discussion with my coworkers about how to teach this issue more clearly to our students.

 

Thanks all!

 

My training is in evolutionary developmental biology as well as in classic comparative anatomy, which is where this term is most widely used. I find that the easiest way to explain "bauplan" is to point to a pharyngula-stage embryo and then point to commonalities across organisms that all share the pharyngula stage. A giraffe and a shark look very different, but one can logically understand how the different parts are all derived stepwise through development from a generally common embryonic source. One can do this with holometabolous insect embryos as well, among other things, and you can do this with more detailed sets of structures in more specific parts of the tree (e.g. common patterns in the tetrapod limb).

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On 3/1/2021 at 2:33 PM, jdp said:

 

My training is in evolutionary developmental biology as well as in classic comparative anatomy, which is where this term is most widely used. I find that the easiest way to explain "bauplan" is to point to a pharyngula-stage embryo and then point to commonalities across organisms that all share the pharyngula stage. A giraffe and a shark look very different, but one can logically understand how the different parts are all derived stepwise through development from a generally common embryonic source. One can do this with holometabolous insect embryos as well, among other things, and you can do this with more detailed sets of structures in more specific parts of the tree (e.g. common patterns in the tetrapod limb).

You literally just put it in to terms I understand! While my background is generalist, I was lucky enough to have professors that stressed the importance of embryology, evolutionary ecology, and developmental biology to my research area.

 

Comparative anatomy is one of my many weaknesses, but I’m now convinced I should burn an elective or two on the subject.

Edited by LabRatKing
Stupid autocorrect
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The thing about comp anat is that it really depends on the professor. If you don't have someone who was classically trained and who values that classical anatomy training, you won't get that interplay between embryology, homology, and shape that is a central part of the classical curriculum.

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I am no scientist/scholar but I was familiar with the term from my interest in the Burgess Shale, and having read 'Wonderful Life' and related stuff. I always took Bauplan and Bodyplan to mean the same thing.

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